


In Vino Veritas

by keelhaulrose



Series: Sympathy for the Devil [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Lucifer (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:48:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25614601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keelhaulrose/pseuds/keelhaulrose
Summary: A bit of news sends Hermione seeking solace in the bottle, but alcohol leads her to tell Lucifer a little more than she intended to say.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV)
Series: Sympathy for the Devil [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1650367
Comments: 5
Kudos: 47
Collections: Hermione's Haven Bingo 2020





	In Vino Veritas

**Author's Note:**

> Written for #HHBingo2020 for square G3- In Vino Veritas

Five days.

He hadn't heard from her for five days after she kissed him.

It was five of the longest days he ever had to endure. Part of him wanted to go to her and demand answers. How dare she kiss him and then ghost him! But, perhaps, she was just as conflicted as he was about the situation. After all, what did it mean? Was there even an answer that she could give that wasn't terrifying? If it were a friendly kiss, maybe, but the more time he spent with the young witch the more a voice in the back of his head said that friendship wasn't enough. He made sure to ignore that voice as much as possible. More wasn't possible, not given their situation. He couldn't get attached.

So he convinced himself that it was best she was avoiding him. If nothing further happened between them then they didn't have to confront the ramifications of her kissing him.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, he did miss her.

So when she texted him he was thrilled, until he read the message.

_Come over_.

It was so simple and direct. A command, not a question. Not an option. He was torn, half of him already trying to head to the car, the other half thinking that maintaining the distance would be best. Okay, he was more excited and curious than concerned at the invitation, so he texted back that he'd be there in half an hour, and exactly thirty minutes later he was stepping off the elevator in her building.

He rapped on the door and stepped back, standing casually in the middle of the hall with one hand wrapped around a bottle of wine, the other tucked into his pocket, placing his best smile across his face, trying not to appear too excited at her invitation to come visit. When she opened the door, however, his face fell slightly. Hermione looked... wrong. Her skirt was hiked up, she was wearing a lacy push-up bra under a too-tight tank top, her makeup was done with a heavier hand than usual. She also looked a little unsteady on her feet, her eyes had a glassy haze to them. Lucifer scowled. He had seen enough drunk women to know that Hermione was tipsy, if not completely drunk, and he moved the wine behind his leg.

“Come on in,” she said, stepping to the side and motioning for him to come in. He looked around the sparse apartment without a word as he walked in and sat on the couch. She sat next to him, too close. Everything about the night this was so far out of place, and she had managed to make him quite uncomfortable very quickly.

“I am going to have to apologize in advance,” she murmured, running a finger up and down his leg.

“For what?” he asked, trying to hide his discomfort.

“I am not very good at the seduction thing, so I'm going to have to be somewhat direct,” she smiled, running a hand up his chest.

“Really?” he smiled excitedly, but the feeling quickly passed as a pit grew rapidly in his stomach. “What changed your mind?”

“I'm lonely,” she murmured, leaning close. “It has been far too long, and I'm not talking about your idea of too long, more a regular person's idea of too long.”

He leaned back to avoid a kiss she tried to plant on his lips. “While that is absolutely unfortunate and a situation that should be rectified sooner rather than later, perhaps this isn't the right time.”

“What is the right time?” she nearly whined. He winced, he could smell a mix of different alcohols on her breath. “As they say, no time like the present.”

“I agree, no time like the present for me to ask you what has compelled this rather intriguing change in your behavior.”

She huffed, leaned back, and grabbed a half-empty bottle of rum off the coffee table, taking a drink straight from the bottle. “I don't consider this a change in behavior. Rather a dormant behavior brought to light by current events.”

“And what current events would that be?” he asked, racking his brain for any hint as to what might be troubling her.

She sighed and started rolling the bottle between her hands. “I got a patronus message today,” she replied softly.

“Patronus?” he repeated, curious.

“Magical. It's the only real way we can communicate safely,” she said, pulling out her wand and studying it as though she weren't sure she could use it properly. Deciding it was worth a shot she waved the wand. Her silver-white otter burst from the tip, swimming around Lucifer's head as his face burst into an expression of delight before the otter disappeared as if it were smoke that merely blew away in a light breeze.

“Obviously the message must have been somewhat distressing,” he said, becoming serious again.

“My friend Ron is getting married,” she sighed. “Well, ex-boyfriend Ron.”

“You still harbor feelings for him?” he guessed.

“I don't,” she said firmly, shaking her head, though she pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead as if the motion had caused her discomfort. “I just... part of me had hoped that I wasn't going through this alone. That even though they're on the other side of the world that their lives had stopped the way mine had to when I went on the run. We had always been such good friends, we did so much together, _went through_ so much together. It... it _hurts_ to know that they went on without me. That Ron found someone and it got serious enough that they're getting married. I can't even go on a bloody second date because any given day might be the day that they find me and I have to run again. I just....” she trailed off and closed her eyes. She set the rum back on the table, then swiped at a tear in her eye. “I'm sorry, I know I'm being horribly selfish...”

“Not at all,” he interrupted. “I know a thing or two about being cast out. About feeling isolated. Like you can't make any true friends.”

“I guess my troubles are practically non-existent comparatively,” she said softly.

“No, they aren't. Just because mine were... more biblical in scale does not mean you can't talk to me about it.”

She gave him a smile. “I'm sorry, I haven't even offered you a drink,” she said.

“I believe you have done enough for the both of us,” he said, picking up the bottle of rum between two fingers and tipping it to show how little was left.

“Well, I don't do it often, so I might as well do it spectacularly,” she replied with a sigh. She picked her wand off the coffee table and summoned a bottle and glass with ice from the kitchen. “I can't really chance being inebriated too often, it puts me off my game and I'm afraid I won't react in time if the Death Eaters show up. But some days just need to be drowned,” she said, pouring him a generous measure of scotch and handing him the glass. “I hope you like it, I was told it is one of the top three in the world. It was a Christmas tip from a wealthy stockbroker in Chicago, who was twice my age but desperately trying to get in my knickers.”

“Did he?” Lucifer asked with a smirk.

“He was very good looking for twice my age,” she replied with a chuckle. “And I do have needs.”

“Needs you were obviously trying to get me to fulfill,” he said, motioning towards her outfit.

She turned a bright shade of scarlet. “Yes, well, I have heard rumors that I'd be a fool not to should I have the chance.”

“You've had plenty of chances,” he's pointed out.

“As I am well aware,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Though if you would remember, I spent several weeks putting locked doors between us in an attempt to get you to go away. You are annoyingly persistent.”

“And since then?” he raised an eyebrow.

She bit her lip as she studied him. “You're the first real friend I've had since I went on the run, Lucifer,” she replied softly. “I have to keep people at arm's length. That way when I disappear they don't really think to look for me. They just buy whatever story I send them via text and accept they'll never see me again. That's if I don't erase myself from their memories. I can't get close to people, not in this day and age where every outing is documented and pictures are sent around the world in seconds. I... don't want to make anything weird between us. I don't want to jeopardize this,” she motioned between them. “I am not used to sleeping with someone and still socializing with them after unless it is in a relationship.”

His mouth hung open slightly as he let her words reverberate within him. “Why did you kiss me the other day, Hermione?” he asked.

She took another sip of rum before exhaling and confessing. “Because I wanted to,” she said, her voice so soft and shaking that if he were any less attentive to her words he might not have caught them. “I wanted _you_. That's why I left. Because I remembered... how I didn't want to jeopardize our friendship... and how I knew I would be jealous if we crossed that line and then I had to go back to watching you with other girls.”

A pit opened in his stomach at the same time his heart started to soar.

“Ask me, Lucifer.”

Her request cut through his thoughts like a blade and silenced them immediately. For a moment he wondered what she meant, but when he realized what she had said he could only look at her in surprise.

“Ask me,” she repeated firmly.

He didn't want to. He didn't want to know. What if she said something about him? What if she confessed feelings for him? There was nothing good that could come from her answer, as much as he liked the young witch they were from different worlds. He could only watch her grow old and pass, and spend an eternity out of his grasp after. He wanted to refuse, but when he opened his mouth he asked, “Hermione, what is it that you most desire?”

She took a deep breath as she let her occlumency shields down and allowed her compulsion to answer the question wash over her. “Freedom,” she finally answered. “Freedom to live my life the way I want and not the way that I must to keep alive. To make friends and find someone to spend my life with, someone to wake up next to in the mornings. Someone who isn't going to be for just a night.” She finished looking deep in his eyes.

He stopped breathing as he looked at her, emotions he couldn't remember having before overtaking him so quickly there was no way of processing any of them before the next wave overtook him. But there was one thought that stretched over all of them, greater and more terrifying than the others.

Part of him wanted to be that person. The one that got to hold her at night. The one who made her smile more than anyone else. Why else had he so determinedly pursued her? At first it was to find out how she had so expertly dodged his question, then he could tell himself it was to see how she had managed not to go mad knowing the truth about him. But after that? Why hadn't he been able to leave her alone? But he couldn't be that man, as he wasn't even a man, Hermione wanted a future he could not provide.

She seemed to come to a similar realization at the same time, eyes watering before she stood and started towards her room. Instinctively he reached for her, but missed and knocked the rum bottle to the floor, where it broke as the door to her room closed behind her. He stared at the door for a moment before reaching down to pick up the bottle, and he felt a shot of pain in his finger. Raising it up he stared in disbelief at the bead of blood now forming at the tip of one finger. He stared at the dark red dot until it grew large enough that gravity took over and it trailed down his finger before falling to the white carpet below.

He did the only thing he could think of in that moment. He looked skyward and asked, "What the hell?"


End file.
